Stacks of flexible magnetic recording disks mounted on a rotating spindle provide large amounts of easily accessible, randomly accessible storage at low cost. In these storage devices, exemplified by the aforenamed patent applications, some type of partitioning means is used to select a particular disk and spread apart the disk stack for purposes of providing space for the insertion of a read/write transducing head. The transducing head is then inserted into the space to have access to the recording surface on the target disk.
In the aforenamed incorporated patent application, it is shown that the relationship between the transducing head and the target disk can be fine tuned to provide an air lubricated compliant form for close juxtaposition of the transducing head to the recording surface. The relationship of the head to the recording surface is controlled by the head contour and by head position relative to the target disk. The incorporated reference describes means for tuning the position of the transducing head by providing adjustable positioning mechanisms for the transducing head relative to the partitioning assembly. In that manner the head can be moved into a compliant transducing relationship with the target disk.
While the device in the incorporated reference produces excellent transducing results over the inner tracks of each disk, the outer tracks produce less satisfactory results due to variations in the air gap between head and disk occurring as the disk rotates. This is caused by vibrations induced into the head as a result of the waviness or wobbling of the flexible disk as it is rotated on the spindle. This waviness is accentuated in amplitude on tracks near the outer periphery of the disks and since there if increased relative speed between the head and the outer tracks as compared to the inner tracks, these two factors combine to cause the head to bounce or vibrate when it is positioned on the outer tracks. The frequency of vibration differs from track to track and from disk to disk making mechanical damping of the vibrations difficult to achieve.
Thus it is the general object of this invention to provide suspension means for the transducing head in a flexible disk recording device whereby the transducing head is properly tensioned in compliant recording relation to the flexible disk surface and is allowed to follow the waviness of the rotating disk without itself going into oscillation.